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Martin Odegaard will reportedly be named Arsenal’s next captain ahead of next season and the Norwegian is highly deserving of that role.
THE LOWDOWN: NEW LEADERSHIP MANTLE
A new breath of leadership is set to emerge at Arsenal, ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.
Alexandre Lacazette filled in as the interim captain when Aubameyang departed to Barcelona during the January transfer window. However, both names are now a thing of the past, with the former sealing a return to Lyon in the current window. There is much talk regarding Mikel Arteta’s pick for the next captain but it appears a certain name has already emerged as the ‘ideal choice’.
Since joining Arsenal permanently last summer, Odegaard has become a key player for Mikel Arteta, justifying the €40m fee that the Gunners paid Real Madrid for his services. On the pitch, he showed his worth with a number of captivating displays – hinting that a top forward would benefit from playing in front of the Norwegian. Sounds like good news for Gabriel Jesus indeed. Despite creating over 100 chances in the league last term, he could only manage six assists all season and only Bruno Fernandes had better numbers than him in that regard.
Off the pitch, Odegaard was just as influential and developed a nice chemistry with other youngsters like Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Emile Smith-Rowe. Already the captain of the Norway national team, the 23-year-old has already been hailed for his leadership abilities and his influence could yet spread to club level, too.
Towards the end of last season, Odegaard wore the captain’s armband on a number of occasions and a recent report claims the playmaker could now be named Arsenal’s official captain ahead of the new campaign.
ODEGAARD HAS THE BACKING
From an ex-captain to a potential future one, Martin Odegaard has the backing of Granit Xhaka to excel as the club’s skipper.
Speaking in an interview with TV2 back in May, Xhaka revealed that the Norwegian is a highly influential figure in the dressing room and described him as the ‘future of the club’.
“He is the future of this club,” Xhaka said.
“He’s already captain when Alexandre Lacazette does not play. He can be very proud of himself. You can see how far he has come in his head, mentally. He is very young, only 23, but in how he behaves and is on the field, he looks like he’s 30. It looks like he has already played 500 or 600 games.”
“He can definitely become Arsenal captain. He has the DNA in him. He works as hard every day as if he were in a fight. He does a lot of extra work. He is humble. Everyone in the dressing room listens to him. Why not?”
THE VERDICT: GOOD CHOICE TO GO WITH
Martin Odegaard is indeed the future of the club and it does make sense to hand him the captain’s armband. Although, we can’t help but notice the trend of Arsenal’s recent captains becoming ‘bad boys’ at some point and we can only imagine that is not the case with a highly-rated player with lots of potential to be better.
